Call to scrap Parliament's welcome to country

Liberal Senator Julian McGauran has called for the Indigenous welcome to country statement to be dropped from the opening of Parliament each day.

Both houses of parliament start each day with the Lord's Prayer and the Indigenous recognition statement.

Senator McGauran says the welcome to country is not a prayer and should not be given equivalent status.

"The welcome to country ought to be separated and be seen to be separate from the meaning or significance given to the Lord's Prayer in the Parliament," he said.

"I seek a delinking of the two. I believe the great many Christian Aboriginal people would agree with me.

"They would see this procedure in the Senate and the House of Representatives as nothing more than gesture politics at best, and offensive at worse."

He says the welcome to country statement has led to respect for the Lord's Prayer being watered down.

"What has occurred is that the prayer is immediately followed by the welcome to country, virtually in the same breath, and given all the same reverence, been placed on the same plane as the Lord's Prayer," he said.

"This is something I do not believe the Indigenous people would even want to see."